Due to the advent of cable television, direct satellite systems, and other television program broadcast systems, viewers have very large numbers of programs from which to select. Sophisticated systems have been developed to assist a viewer in selecting programs to view or record, among which are the Electronic Program Guide (EPG). An EPG is displayed on a display screen as an interface. In essence, an EPG is an interactive, on screen equivalent to listings found in local newspapers or other print media. An EPG interface can provide several different kinds of information about each program that is within the time frame covered by the EPG. The time frame typically ranges from the next hour up to seven days in advance. EPG program information is usually displayed in a two dimensional grid comprising a plurality of program cells wherein each cell corresponds to a particular program. Typically, the EPG program schedule grid has time on one axis and channel number on the other axis.
One such system employing an electronic program guide (EPG) is a system for providing satellite entertainment services and locally stored entertainment services to apartments within a multi-dwelling unit (MDU), dorm rooms within a dormitory, or to paying customers on a people transporter, such as an airplane. The system architecture of the airline system described herein is based on land based systems such as those used in multi-dwelling units (MDU) in the US Market. All of the programming is made available to the user via one unified Electronic Program Guide (EPG) on the seat display. The visual EPG is constructed from several sources. The satellite programming is accompanied by a satellite EPG stream that pertains to the satellite programming while the local content EPG stream is generated locally.
In a satellite receiver the EPG data needs to be acquired continuously to enable the receiver to display correct program information for present and future program slots in the grid guide. This is accomplished in two ways. First. the satellite broadcaster sends guide information on all transponders so that the receiver can acquire it from the currently tuned transponder along with video/audio data. Secondly, the satellite broadcaster sends guide information on only few predefined transponders. The receiver dedicates a separate tuner to acquire the guide information from one of these transponders. This tuner does not get involved in acquiring audio/video or other data corresponding to the current program being watched.
In a system where the satellite broadcast does not provide guide data on each transponder and where the receiver does not have a dedicated tuner to acquire guide data there exists a need to efficiently and continuously acquire electronic program guide data.